Page 26 - Sotheby's Speelman Collection Oct. 3, 2018

PHOENIX AMIDST LOTUS

A MASTERPIECE OF XUANDE
IMPERIAL LACQUERWARE

This dish represents one of the finest and largest surviving a dragon and a phoenix, whereas the current dish consist
examples of Xuande reign-marked lacquerware in private of two phoenix. Compare also the closely related treatment
hands, preserved in extraordinarily good condition. The of two phoenix on a lacquer casket illustrated in Porcelaine
sensitive, naturalistic rendering of the complex design of : Chefs-d’oeuvre de la collection Ise, Musee national des art
phoenix depicted opposing each other in flight, the luxuriance asiatiques – Guimet, Paris, 2017, fig. 4.
of the interwoven lotus design, and the large size of the piece The design can also be found on a Xuande period cloisonné
are of exceptional quality. It would have been an extremely basin in the Uldry collection, illustrated in Helmut Brinker and
ambitious undertaking, and the precision of form and Albert Lutz, Chinese Cloisonné: The Pierre Uldry Collection,
successful finish is a credit to the craftsmen working in Beijing.
London, 1989 (German edition Zurich, 1985), pl.19 (fig. 2),
Like with porcelain, it was in the Yuan dynasty that dishes of where the authors argue that the birds are differentiated by
such massive size began to be created, and they continued the treatment of the long tail feathers to distinguish between
to be produced to imperial order until the Xuande reign, but the male and female bird. They also illustrate, ibid., fig., 55,
thereafter monumental works of this kind were practically a stone relief from the ruins of the Mongol capital Dadu,
abandoned. Equally, the superb thick lacquer layer assembled dated to the second half of the 13th century. Carved with
for this dish from numerous individual coatings was only two phoenix within a quatrefoil, each with a different long
rarely recreated in later periods. The soft, well-polished finish tail plume, the decoration is remarkably similar to both the
and the smooth, rounded outlines of the various motifs are cloisonné basin and the current lacquer tray. Clearly this
also characteristic of the wares created at that time; the imperial Yuan decorative motif was a prototype for the design
exuberance and complexity of the present design, however, used in Xuande imperial works of art.
are exceptional. The creation of a tray of this scale and quality The phoenix emblem was also a regularly used design motif
would have been a highly ambitious undertaking, given the on the highest quality blue and white porcelain produced at
time-consuming process of building up a thick enough layer of the Imperial kilns of Jingdezhen in the Xuande period. For
lacquer by adding and preparing multiple thin coatings, each a Xuande reign-marked brushwasher (fig. 3) painted with
of which needs to dry before it can be polished and the next two phoenix from the Qing court collection, preserved in the
one applied, and finally carving the design into it – a process Palace Museum, Beijing, see The Complete Collection of
that can stretch over years Treasures of the Palace Museum. Blue and White Porcelain
Xuande reign-marked lacquer trays of this large size are with Underglazed Red, Shanghai, 2000, vol. 1, pl. 129. As in
extremely rare, but another example of identical size and the current tray, there is clear differentiation in the treatment
form, but carved with a square panel enclosing a scene of five of the long tails on both birds, a Xuande innovation never
sages, from the Qing court collection in the Palace Museum, found on Yongle porcelain.
Beijing, is illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures As carefully researched by the scholars Lee King Tsi and
of the Palace Museum. Lacquer Wares of the Yuan and Ming Hu Shih-Chang, a number of lacquer wares in museum and
Dynasties, Hong Kong, 2006, pl. 55.
private collections ascribed to the Xuande period are actually
The design on the current tray is however very closely related pieces with marks inscribed over effaced Yongle marks. In
to that found on another famous Xuande reign-marked their research published in ‘Carved Lacquer of the Hongwu
lacquerware – the table in the Victoria and Albert Museum, Period’, Oriental Art, vol. 19, no. 4, 2001, pp. 62-63, they
London, illustrated in Ming: Fifty Years That Changed China, discuss this phenomenon, notably on a stand included in the
The British Museum, London, 2014, p. 106-7, fig. 97 (fig. exhibition 2000 Years of Chinese Lacquer, Oriental Ceramic
1). The precision and carving of the design on the upper Society of Hong Kong and the Art Gallery, The Chinese
surface of the table of a dragon and phoenix soaring amidst University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1993, cat. no. 46, which
a dense ground of lotuses and foliage amidst quatrefoil has a finely carved and gilded Xuande reign mark over a partly
panels precisely matches that on the current tray. The effaced, thinly scratched Yongle mark. They believe that
stylistic elements are so similar – the precise treatment of Yongle marks on lacquer were not added at the workshops but
the feathers, wings and tails of the phoenix, and the depiction later in the reign, after the pieces were moved from Nanjing to
of phoenix in reserve on the four corners – that it is likely to the new capital, Beijing. The exact reason why some Yongle-
have been carved by the same team of artisans. The only marked items are also inscribed with a Xuande reign mark is
fundamental difference is that the design on the table features